Effect of Glycerol on Gluten filled in Natural Rubber/WG Blend

Abstract

Abstract In recently, a large number of utilization of NR has been found in several applications such as foam, insole but they do not provide good properties. In order to improve mechanical properties, in this work, wheat gluten (WG) which is a complex protein derived from wheat was used as a reinforcement. Furthermore, NR with WG (plasticized WG) can reduce costs of materials and easily degrade. NR-WG blend was prepared by mixed NR and WG, plasticized by glycerol, then mixed each other by using two rolls mill and compressed to get specimens. SEM, MDR, tensile testing and tear testing were used to characterize compounds. The effect of glycerol contents added and acting as plasticizer were also studied. The results show that the presence of glycerol also affected vulcanization behavior of rubber matrix. The increasing of glycerol content can also improve dispersion of WG in rubber matrix and indeed improve mechanical properties of NR.